If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.
7 January. Genesis chapters 22 to 24.
The near-sacrifice of Isaac is another very troubling story. Although it ends happily and is given as a lesson about faith in God, I imagine Isaac must have been traumatised and had a difficult relationship with his father for a long time after being nearly murdered. The story is of course seen by Christians as a foreshadowing of Christ who also had to carry the wood to his own place of execution.
The next story about Isaac – the fetching of his cousin’s daughter Rebekah for an arranged marriage – is a happier one, and the sort of thing that goes on in many communities today. Although the story is told as one of divine providence, I expect Isaac would have known who he was looking for and where she could be found. Then as now, though, the girl (and for that matter the young man) would not really have been given a choice.